Create compatible 3D SBS video from your own 3D movie for Gear VR

Samsung and Oculus have made it easy to import and watch your own 3D movies with Gear VR in virtual cinema mode. And once you’ve slipped the headset on and entered that world, it’s very easy to just sit back and passively enjoy your video content. It’s almost a holiday on your own couch, unencumbered by the wires and cords that would potentially restrict you on the Rift.

So how do we accomplish this?

There are two ways to watch your own video content in the “My Videos” section of Oculus Cinema. First, any movies you record using your Galaxy Note 4’s camera will automatically appear in the “My Videos” section. The other way is to copy your compatible video files directly to your phone or SD card in any of the following directories:

On a PC, your phone’s storage can be accessed from Windows Explorer by simply plugging in the USB data/charging cable – no software is required. On a Mac, files can be transferred to your phone using Android File Transfer (https://www.android.com/filetransfer/), which is a free utility provided by Google.

For 3D video content, Oculus Cinema supports the side-by-side and top-to-bottom formats. To designate that a file is 3D, create a text file with the same file name as your video and place it in the same directory. For instance, for mymovie.mp4, create a text file mymovie.txt, with the following content:

{
“format”: “3D”
}

Then what if you have downloaded a lot of video in 3D already and want to freely watch these 3D movies with Gear VR in Oculus Cinema on your own couch without format limitation? All you have to do is to convert these media sources to Gear VR supported SBS 3D video beforehand. Now it’s time to create SBS video in 3D for your Gear VR.

What you need:

Downloaded 3D movies

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate – to convert 3D in all kinds of video types and turn them into 3D SBS MP4/MKV so that you can can create true theater entertainment at home instead of going to cinema.. Plus, you can edit video to get clips of your favorite scenes from a movie before conversion. (For Mac users, you can try Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac)

Convert your 3D movies to 3D SBS MP4/MKV videos for Gear VR

1. Import 3D video files

Click “Add Video” button on the main interface to load your 3D Movie files to the program. (Drag & Drop function is included.)

2. Set 3D as your output format

Click “Format” and you will find many presets. There are three types of 3D effect: Anaglyph 3D, Side-by-Side 3D and Top-Bottom 3D. Here, you are suggested to choose “MP4 Side-by-Side 3D Video(*.mp4)” or “MKV Side-by-Side 3D Video(*.mkv)” from “3D Video” option.

Tip:

a. Adjust target video settings and 3D effect.

Click “Settings” which is next to “Format”, free change your target video size, bitrate, frame rate and 3D depth. If you want to get best video quality, pls switch them to “original”. 3D movies should be encoded “full side-by-side” with a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio. Content mastered at 1920×1080 compressed side­-by-­side 3D should be resampled to 1920×540 resolution full side­-by­-side resolution. We also recommend using a higher bit rate than a typical web stream at that resolution, as the pixels in your video will be magnified on the phone’s screen. The optimal bit rate is content dependent, and many videos can get by with less, but 5 Mb/s should give good quality.

Now hit the big red “Convert” to start converting videos to start converting 3D to 3D SBS MP4/MKV on PC/Mac. After the conversion, click “open output folder” to quick locate the generated media file. With Gear VR, Samsung has created a plug-and-play VR headset. After the initial apps are installed from the included 16GB microSD card and you’ve logged into your Oculus account, diving into the world of VR is as easy as popping the Galaxy Note 4 into the Gear VR. (Read how to use Gear VR here)

Now get your Gear VR to watch your own 3D movies in Oculus Cinema on your own couch as you wish! Have a nice time!